Altheia: The Wrath of Aferi

A fun Zelda like, while I did encounter some minor bugs and the sound effects sometimes seem a bit off, it has hardly detracted from my overall enjoyment of the game and I'm very intrigued to see where the story goes from here.

Story-wise it is Twilight, but the girl is manly, and man are femboish beta submale: manly girl that doesn't know what to do, doesn't want to do anything, but calls all the shots, also foolishly unleashed "vampire" that killed her own mother - meets femboish beta submale werewolf boy and they are going on epic adventure about extermination of black goo monsters. Gameplay-wise is okay, a bit dark souls-like goofy control. 5/10

Unfortunately sauceless. The Twilight Princess inspiration is clear and welcomed, but the combat is a clunky mess that can cause slowdown, the OST is poor, repetitive, and probably the game's worst enemy, and the backtracking is so beyond egregious that most of my nearly two hours with this game were running through places I'd been half a dozen times before, while nothing new was happening. The only pro is the voice acting, which puts me in mind of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and even then it's not particularly great, it's just better than everything else going on.

I can at least change my review now that the game breaking bug I experienced is fixed and I can review the actual game. It's fine. The overall story is a bit derivative, the gameplay is simple but it gets the job done. Made by a very small team and that's always respectable. Puzzles are pretty decent, combat and exploration are relatively barebones and the game is overall linear. This is fine, it's got a story to tell and nothing overstays its welcome. It's got its share of quirk and clunk, but nothing egregious beyond bugs and those seem to be getting fixed.

Really unpolished. The camera is extremly shakey and the animations in combat feel hollow. Unplayable for me with mouse and keyboard and just okay with a controller. A lot of SFX are missing or not well tuned. The combat itself is okay, but also does not feel too good. It feels like the devs wanted to much but could not do it themself. Visually it looks great, but with that lack of gameplay and polish I can't recommend it...

This game was really fun and engaging—I never felt bored for a single moment. The boss fights were exciting and well-designed, I genuinely enjoyed every single one from start to finish. The puzzles were clever, stimulating, and very rewarding to solve. I’m usually not the type of player who goes for indie games, but this one completely won me over. I walked away truly satisfied, so congratulations to the team for creating such an impressive experience.

Had a blast. Controls felt responsive.

Decent but buggy

Hand-painted look does a ton of lifting, dungeons feel lived in and the audio mix ties it all together.

Love a game with this much to explore, especially when the world really feels lived-in. Plus, the art style is gorgeous - it's a pleasure just to run about and look around sometimes. Puzzles can be a serious challenge but success always feels earned, as do story beats as the characters learn more about what's going on. Overall: cheerful, fun, doesn't skimp on challenging dungeons. Would recommend.